Uncle Bruce

4

Percy watched as her friends were killed in battle again, and when it ended, a chilling laughter broke through the dream.

Percy gasped and the scene changed. Percy was in Tartarus again, with the being itself standing in front of her. Percy was dangling from chains in front of Tartarus. Tartarus was holding a knife Percy recognized. It was the knife that Annabeth left in the pit when they fell.

"I see you've found my wife's parting gifts," Tartarus said, with a smirk that made Percy shiver.

Percy didn't say anything in response though, just glared at the monster through the pain she felt from that comment.

Tartarus laughed, and dragged the knife across her back, taunting her.

But instead, he ended up raking his claws down her back, not doing anything with the knife.

Tartarus turned her around, "your loved ones will die, Persephone Jackson. And when they are dead, I will be there to kill you too."

Then he stabbed the knife into Percy's stomach, and she gasped awake.

She groaned, and did her best to not scream in pain. She got up and made her way to the bathroom, as quickly as she could, holding her stomach, to try to keep the blood from coming out. However, her back was also bleeding badly, so she couldn't bend any in fear of tearing it more.

She went into the bathroom and turned in the shower. Not even waiting for it to heat up, she jumped in and let the water heal her.

After everything healed, she released a sigh she wasn't aware she was holding. She cleaned herself before she got out.

She went back to her room and got dressed for the day. She wore a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans.

Then she looked at her bed.

"Styx," Percy said. It was mostly dried too.

Percy saw a glass of water at her bed. She remembered seeing it before she went to sleep, and assumed that Alfred left it for her.

She took the water and poured it on the blood. It wasn't much water, just a cup, but she didn't need a lot.

She controlled the water to pickup the blood, and then she pulled the water up out of the sheets and mattress, willing it to bring the blood with it.

She then moved the water back into the cup. She took a breath and then took the cup to the bathroom and dumped the bloody water down the drain. She also rinsed the cup, and filled it up again with water from the sink.

She drank that glass of water, which helped her gain some energy back from using her powers as she did.

After a few cups of water, she left her bedroom, walking to the kitchen with the empty cup in her hand.

She walked inside, and saw it was only three in the morning. However, she washed her cup, then set about making cookies.

Around six o'clock, Percy sensed Alfred walking to the kitchen.

"Morning, Alfred," Percy said, as he walked in the door to the kitchen.

"Morning, Miss Percy. How long have you been in here?" Alfred asked, looking at the abundance of blue cookies covering the counters of the kitchen.

"Since three," Percy said, as she pulled another batch from the oven.

"You didn't sleep well?" Alfred asked.

"I haven't since I was five, Alfred. Besides, I have things I need to do today. Thought it would help to get a head start," Percy said.

"And you thought baking cookies would help?" Alfred asked, moving to the fridge to get eggs out of the kitchen.

"Yeah. It does. Especially, after a rough night," Percy said.

"You and Master Bruce are very similar. He'd spend hours in his office after a bad night, when his and Sally's parents were killed, and after Jason moved out," Alfred said.

"You mean when Jason died?" Percy asked, turning to look at Alfred.

"You already know about it?" Alfred asked.

"Jason and I had a long talk before he left. We exchanged an equal amount of information," Percy said, with a small roll of her eyes.

She moved the cookies to a cooling rack, then brought the pan and bowl over to the sink.

She had already put away the ingredients she used, and cleaned most of the dishes she used. She washed her dishes, then moved to help Alfred with breakfast.

Alfred looked at her, but didn't say anything. He smiled, then went back to cooking.

"You know, your mom would help me cook, when she was younger," Alfred said, after a bit of silence.

"I always cooked with her. And I'm going to make everything blue," Percy said, holding dye up, and dripping some on the eggs Alfred was frying, before adding some to the batter she had started mixing.

"Why blue?" Alfred asked.

"My first stepdad, after Bruce stopped coming by, said that there is no such thing as blue food. So my mom made all of the food blue, when she cooked or baked," Percy said, with a small smile on her face, as she mixed the blue batter.

"Gabe, right? Bruce mentioned him a few times," Alfred asked.

"Yeah. He was a drunk," Percy said, with a shrug. She also took the batter over to the stove and got a pan out to start cooking the pancake batter she mixed up.

"Before or after Bruce stopped going?" Alfred asked.

"After, is when he got worse. Before it was mostly verbal, and the occasional smack up the side of my head," Percy said, flipping a pancake as she did so.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I know Master Bruce talked about you guys often," Alfred said.

"In some ways I'm glad he wasn't around. Or he'd have been killed too," Percy said.

"You think you caused your mom's death?" Alfred asked.

Percy didn't say anything. She knew her parents were killed because of her, Gaea killed them as revenge; in case she lost. So, if Percy hadn't been born, they'd have been left alone.

Alfred waited for her to take the pancake off the stove before he stopped her, "it is not your fault whoever killed them, went and killed them. You didn't force it too, they chose to."

Percy didn't say anything about it, but turned and continued to making the last few blue pancakes.

Silence followed the two after that. When Percy finished, Alfred was almost done cooking bacon, while toasting bread. She brought the pan and bowl to the sink and started cleaning them.

"I got that, Miss Percy. Can you go wake the others? If you know where they are," Alfred asked, remembering her saying she knew the lay out already.

Percy nodded, and left to get her cousins and uncle.